Christmas is in the air, and few tracks welcome the season in the Caribbean, like the timeless classic “Feliz Navidad.” Now the celebrated tune is getting a facelift after 50 years, and it will feature Dancehall superstar Shaggy.
The release of the track, which will also commemorate its fifty-year anniversary, will feature both Shaggy and the original composer Jose Feliciano. He will be joining an all-star cast as Michael Bolton, and several other artists will feature on the remake. The tentative number given for the remix is 30 artists so far.
Feliciano said, “The idea of Feliz Navidad was to try and unite the people. My thought when I wrote the song was that it didn’t matter what language you were singing in, the feeling of Christmas is privy to all of us.” The 75-year-old is a nine-time Grammy winner. He added that it was a dream come through for so many artists to come together to help him spread holiday cheer.
It will be quite a finished product considering that the song has just 19 words. The song will be distributed through Amazon Music this Friday, November 27. The recording was done remotely.
It seems Shaggy is feeling the Christmas season this year as he recently released a 15 track Christmas album called Christmas In The Islands. He enlisted some top names in the genre for this project, including Beenie Man, Ding Dong, Bounty Killer, Junior Reid, Shenseea, Romain Virgo, Richie Stephens, Conkarah, Sanchez, OMI, Joss Stone, and Ne-Yo.
Through a press release at that time, Shaggy said, “We enlisted some of Jamaica’s leading, iconic artists to participate, and with guests like Ne-Yo and Joss Stone, who frequent Jamaica during the holiday season, we hope to transport listeners and share how we celebrate Christmas in the Islands!”
Every year Feliz Navidad features on the Billboard Hot 100 and has also become one of the most played and recorded Christmas songs around the world.
